Hasta La Ideas

Ample daylight, worker ammenities and low-maintenance gardens feature in a large campus for a housewares company that was designed by Mexican architecture studios Estudio MMX and Luis Campos.

The project – referred to as Campus Betterware Guadalajara, or CBG – occupies a 7.5-hectare site in El Arenal, a town north of Guadalajara in the western state of Jalisco.

It serves as a key campus and distribution centre for Betterware, a household products company with international reach.

Totalling 15,000 square metres, the campus encompasses administrative space and a series of warehouses for shipping, receiving, sorting and storage.

It also offers worker amenities such as a cafeteria, gym, leisure room, hairdresser, laundry facility, infirmary and children’s nursery.

Creating continuation between the different programmatic areas was a key concern for the design team – Mexico City’s Estudio MMX and local architect Luis Campos.

“An important aspect that determined the configuration of the campus – and that is imperative for the optimum functioning of an industrial building of this type – is the horizontality and continuity between operative spaces,” the team said.

The team conceived nine individual buildings set within a garden landscape, helping to ensure users have access to “high-quality spaces and experiences”.

Pathways link the buildings and allow workers to cross the gardens.

Two of the buildings are elongated, rectangular bars that sit perpendicular to each other.

The other seven buildings are roughly square in plan, and they surround the bars in a staggered formation.

For structural framing, the team used concrete and steel painted in a reddish hue. Stretches of glass usher in natural light.

The language of the exterior continues indoors, where one finds voluminous spaces and exposed structural elements.

A number of elements that the team said contribute to sustainable design were incorporated into the campus.

A team that specializes in bioclimatic design helped conceive architectural solutions that are suitable for the site, including ways to incorporate passive ventilation and natural lighting.

Solar panels help supply energy to the facility. The campus also has its own water-treatment plant, which includes a rainwater harvesting system.

The landscape features plants that are low-maintenance and adapted to the local climate. “Dry rivers” were integrated into the site to channel rainwater toward the gardens and help water infiltrate the soil.

Other projects by Estudio MMX include a Yucatán geology museum that “consciously synthesizes” Mayan and contemporary architecture, and a Mexico City home that consists of towering volumes that step down a hillside.

The photography is by César Béjar.

Project credits:

Design: Estudio MMX and Luis Campos
Collaborators: Santiago Vázquez, Ana Nuño, Gerson Guizar, Lesly Noguerón, Gabriel González

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